Sunday, August 21, 2016

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

This will be my third work-through this book.  Each time I find some new passage, some new idea, something they carried, that struck me.  Today, it's the passage (P.S. I obviously don't own this, but I also don't have time, atm, to look up how to properly cite this).

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien - page 21:

" They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.  Grief, terror, love, longing --these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.  They carried shameful memories.  They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.  They carried their reputations.  They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing.  Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."

This is an amazing book, truly what will someday be (if it is not already, I don't always dwell in the most popular of literary circles) a classic for all the ages because, war as we all know, is timeless.  When I think about the things that I would carry to war, my heart almost trembles.  And that's why I've decided to write it....

To Be Continued.....

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